UKOLN 30th Anniversary
Thank you very much. I’ve been asked to ruminate for 5-10 minutes on UKOLN and its history and then to propose a toast.. It’’s a great pleasure to be here. Living proof of the seven ages of conference man.
1. A poster
2. A paper
3. An international paper
4. A keynote paper [unrefereed]
5. Conference programme committee
6. Chair of conference planning committee
7. Then as I am tonight the seventh and final stage when nobody can remember when you last did or said something useful but they quite like having you around for company so you become the after dinner speaker – or in this case a reception as being the nearest to a dinner that JISC funding will allow.
Cliff said he’d spent a couple of weeks wondering what to say today. I had the same problem. I’ve spent several sleepless afternoons thinking about it, because I thought it would be a pleasure renewing friendships and commenting on what Mel and Bruce and Richard and Ian had done. But there are so many familiar faces. I’m not sure whether it’s a pleasure to be here tonight or really scary. You remember that old Kinks song the Village Green Preservation Society? Its like that.
Looking around here it’s like watching my entire career flash before my eyes but through a distorting mirror which shows less hair and more paunch – and the men are just the same. By the way I’m indebted for that Kinks reference to Dave Cook. Who needs the Web or Wikipedia when he’s around?. If you ever need to phone a friend – Dave’s the man. JISC’s faith in UKOLN started with Dave and Alice and that bond of trust has been an important link between the two bodies.
Anyway it’s my job not to tell you how it is but how it used to be. First of all I should start with a confession. Formally and for the record. In the little history which is in your pack Philip mentions that it was me who wrote to Brian Perry at BLRDD suggesting that a national networking centre should be set up. This is true. My qualification was clear. To my eternal embarrassment I had spoken at a MARC user group meeting some months before, noting with some perception and acuity that we should keep an eye on the Internet as it might have some marginal impact on libraries at some point in the future. What I think has never been revealed is that that the reason I wrote the letter was because Brian Perry asked me to. The role of funding agencies in the enlightened development of our national centres cannot be overstated.
That leads me to my first point, which is the importance of funding agencies. It began with the late lamented BLRDD joined and then succeeded by JISC. As Richard said it was a really successful spin out. Parenthetically it’s a very particular pleasure to welcome Dame Lynne Brindley. Delight in that honour is shared throughout the profession. Her welcome here tonight is very different from the last time a BL Chief Executive visited a UKOLN event. That little brouhaha led to formal reprimands in the BL Board Room rather than champagne.
The key point here is the consistency and security of funding and most importantly the consistent intellectual support of the funding bodies. The JISC has been brilliant at this. Sarah said of UKOLN that we need you more than ever. Liz that’s an invitation for an increased grant application if ever I heard one. Seriously, the consistent longterm funding of centres of excellence is of huge benefit to the community and we are celebrating that as well as everything else today.
Lorcan said that he’d not had much of a career. Well thank you Lorcan but I think we’ll be the judge of that. Lorcan’s career has been a luminous success. His name is known around the globe. But he’s always kept his feet on the ground Lorcan has never let his success go to his clothes. One of the great things about places like the Bath Centre is the way it allows us to cherish our thinkers and intellectual leaders. It began of course with Maurice Line. I’m proud to say that Maurice has always been one of my professional heroes. Amongst many distinctions Maurice can probably claim to have had an avatar before avatars were invented. Those of you who don’t know the works of Eunice M. Blair should look them up in the BL catalogue. They are a joy and a scatological delight. Providing a home for Maurice, for Philip for Lorcan for Liz and others has been a huge benefit to our collective society. And can I too say what a pleasure it is to see Chris Rusbridge back with us.
It’s a pleasure to have Lorcan and Cliff here. I sometimes think that we’ve exported Lorcan and imported Cliff. More importantly and from the start UKOLN recognised that this was an international global activity and our work, particularly with CNI starting with the much missed Paul Evan Peters has been a notable feature of UKOLN life and hugely important. The seminal international conferences were mentioned by Cliff, but as well as the conferences there has been a steady stream of collaborations, projects and visitors from around the globe. Visits to bars were mentioned a cherish a great meeting in a bar with Cliff when we almost started two journals – the Journal of Airport Librarianship and the Journal of Bleeding Obvious Results. Sadly both remain in the realm of the mythic.
Now a 30th birthday is that point when you finally have to admit that you’re not a teenager any more and have to start behaving like a grown up. What does that portend? Well UKOLN was described as an agent of change and that has been perhaps its key role. Change in universities is like change in cemeteries and for the same reasons. UKOLN has always excited enthusiasm, energy, irritation and hope. UKOLN is like the glue which binds the progressive library community together. And like glue we’re stuck with it.
We can be sure of the consistency of change. Sarah Porter said that in French. Plus ca change…. I thought I’d make the same point with a naval story aimed at Roy Clare. Many of you will know of the naval tradition of saving time by sending signals using biblical reference. So every naval officer knows that John 23.12 means that “we are seeking a safe harbour after storm” and so on. During the Battle of the Atlantic one convoy escort was a Canadian corvette which knew the tradition but not the standard set of verses used. So after six days heaved to in a storm it sent a message to the other escorts. Mathew 17 verse 4. None of the other captains recognised this and bibles were hastily sent for to reveal the message to the storm bound ships. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday the same today and the same tomorrow.
Sarah described the role of JISC centres as to develop strategy, change policy and innovate. UKOLN has done that with great aplomb. In the last session we had fun hearing reminiscences from UKOLN staff. One of the biggest successes of UKOLN is that we are all in some measure part of UKOLN and UKOLN is in some measure part of us. Liz mentioned the impact on Follett and eLib and on the players in those activities. Both explicitly and implicitly UKOLN has driven change, through advocacy, through horizon scanning, through research, through inquisitiveness and through commentary. UKOLN’s success is our success. Roy Clare mentioned Value for Money. UKOLN’s value for money is our value for money. If its miniscule budget were redistributed amongst the universities of the UK we would not have achieved a fraction of what the UKOLN staff and community have achieved. As one old line has it, a month in the lab can save you an hour in the library. In the same way, a month of work in the library can save you an hour reading Ariadne. So the final message I want to leave with you, with MLA, with JISC with the University of Bath and with the BL is that we all want to come back for UKOLN’s fortieth birthday party.
Can I then thank the British Library for hosting this wonderful and important celebration and invite you to join me in a toast to UKOLN and its future.